‘You have to do what you have to do to survive’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/04/2018 (2197 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Hundreds of prisoners with gang affiliations are incarcerated at federal institutions across the Prairies. But Correctional Service Canada (CSC) and Winnipeg gang-diversion specialists say they’re trying to help offenders leave the gang lifestyle before they leave prison.

CSC data provided to the Free Press show the agency last fall identified 1,026 prisoners as members of what it calls “security threat groups,” mostly gangs but also white supremacist-groups.

Almost half are involved in Aboriginal gangs, such as Native Syndicate, Manitoba Warriors and Indian Posse; others are involved in street gangs, such as Terror Squad; and a few are involved in motorcycle gangs, such as Hells Angels.

Longtime social worker Mitch Bourbonniere regularly works with men who have been released from Stony Mountain Institution, a half-hour north of Winnipeg.

“There are lots of people inside the institution and in the community that are working very hard to offer men support on choosing a different path,” said Bourbonniere, who works with Ogijiita Pimatiswin Kinamatwin.

“It’s really, unfortunately, just two scenarios: they come out either sick and tired of it and needing and wanting to get out, or they come out more entrenched and harder.”

Those who do leave gangs have “just a ton” of basic needs, from housing, work and official identification to addictions, “addiction to the lifestyle” and cultural connections, he said. “There’s several layers of need when someone is leaving that life.”

The CSC data span 12 federal institutions and healing centres between the Rockies and northwest Ontario. In Manitoba, that only includes Stony Mountain, but Ottawa said it can’t provide data specific to that prison’s almost 800 offenders due to privacy and safety concerns.

There are roughly 4,000 prisoners housed in those institutions, though the CSC data also include those on ­temporary absence, active supervision and those unlawfully at large — suggesting slightly less than one-fourth of federal prisoners in the Prairies belong to such groups.

The data show that at the time of recording, no known Prairie inmates were involved in cults, terror groups or Jamaican gangs, while 12 were identified as being in white-supremacist groups.

CSC lists these groups when they involve more than two people. Prison guards use them to house rival gangs separately, and plan programming to steer them away from the gang lifestyle.

Officials admit it’s hard to get an accurate grasp on these affiliations, especially with the “increasingly complex and diverse” makeup of federal institutions.

“We recognize the challenges associated with working in a correctional environment and have a number of strategies in place to manage and reduce violent incidents in our institutions, in order to ensure a safe and secure environment,” CSC spokeswoman Laura Cummings wrote.

“In some cases, separation is not always a realistic approach to dealing with (gangs). We individually assess each situation and employ interventions at the institutional level deemed to be the most effective.”

Bourbonniere agrees, saying the footprint of Winnipeg gangs hasn’t changed much in 10 years, but they’re no longer as segregated to specific area or racial groups. “It’s much more mixed at this point.”

He said men with gang affiliations often can’t disavow those groups while incarcerated without a real risk of violent retaliation. He said programming that emphasizes skills and Indigenous teachings often plant the idea of leaving these gangs, but inmates feel they can’t do so until later.

“Seeds can be planted within the institution itself. There are opportunities in the institution for men to work on themselves and make changes,” he said. “When you’re still inside, you have to do what you have to do to survive.”

CSC houses inmates serving sentences of more than two years, which are generally more violent and severe. The majority of prisoners in Manitoba are housed in provincial correctional centres.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca